John McClane
John McClane is an Irish-American detective lieutenant with the New York City Police Department. He has been an officer for 31 years. He is separated from his wife, Holly Gennero McClane, who is using her maiden name. Holly moved to Los Angeles several months earlier to pursue a career that John ultimately thought would fail, leading to their separation. They have two children, Lucy and John Jr.. ''Die Hard'' On Christmas Eve 1988, John travels to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his children. He first visits his wife Holly at the Nakatomi Plaza where she works, although she is initially pleased to see him they soon have a argument about Holly not using her marital name. Simultaneously, a gang of twelve terrorists led by Hans Gruber break into the Nakatomi Plaza and take all the employees, including Holly hostage. The gang's intentions are to steal the $640 million dollars in negotiable bearer bonds that are locked in the building's vault. McClane fights his way through the building, outnumbered thirteen to one and contacts the police on a stolen radio. When the police send Sergeant Al Powell to investigate, McClane gets his attention by throwing the body of Marco, a terrorist he killed, onto his car. McClane fights to save the hostages and defeat the terrorists who are revealed to really be thieves after $640 million in the building's vault. Despite the arrival of the police and FBI, the only person who proves remotely helpful to McClane is Powell who McClane befriends over the radio. McClane rescues all the hostages but Holly who has been taken with Gruber and goes after him, discovering that he only has two bullets left in his police handgun and none in his stolen machine gun. McClane tapes the handgun to his back and uses the butt of the rifle to knock out one of the three remaining terrorists. McClane pretends to surrender to Gruber who holds Holly hostage, but grabs the gun from his back and shoots Eddie in the head, killing him and Hans in the shoulder, causing him to fall through a window. Hans tries to pull Holly with him, but McClane saves her and Hans falls to his death. Outside, McClane finally meets Powell face to face, but Karl, who wanted revenge as McClane killed his brother Tony and who McClane believed dead, arrives and takes aim at him, but he's saved by Powell who shoots Karl dead. McClane and Holly reconcile and head off in a limo driven by Argyle. ''Die Hard 2: Die Harder'' Now reconciled with Holly (who has adopted a hyphenated last name), John is living in Los Angeles and is serving with that city's police force. John and the kids are in Washington, D.C., visiting Holly's parents. As he awaits the arrival of Holly's plane, though, mercenaries seize control of Dulles Airport. The terrorist group takes control of the airport's communications and threatens to cause deadly plane crashes, including the plane that is carrying his wife, unless their demands are not met. McClane, getting no help from airport security (led by Captain Carmine Lorenzo), takes on the terrorists led by Colonel Stuart himself. He saves Leslie Barnes from being killed and kills three of Stuart's men. In retaliation, Stuart causes one of the planes to crash, killing over 230 people. Learning from a radio that General Esperanza has arrived, McClane tries to capture him, but is ambushed by Stuart and his men and barley escapes through an ejector seat. Finding Stuart's hideout with help from Barnes, McClane helps in an attack by an Army Special Forces unit led by Major Grant and kills two more of the terrorists, but can't understand it why when using one of the terrorists machine guns he wasn't able to cause any harm. Discovering that the gun only shoots blanks and that the Special Forces team are also on Stuart's side, McClane enlists the help of airport security (finally convincing him by shooting the blanks at the commander Lorenzo) in stopping Stuart, Esperanza, Grant and his men from escaping on a plane, but a news broadcast by Richard Thronburg causes chaos and panic so McClane gets a news crew to drop him from their helicopter onto the plane's wing where he jams the ailerons. In a fight, McClane manages to kill Grant, but is kicked from the plane by Stuart, but not before he pulls open a fuel dump on the side of the plane. McClane ignites the fuel, blowing up the plane and killing the bad guys. Holly's plane, which has no choice but to land, is able to use the fire from the wreckage and fuel trail to land and the other planes follow. McClane and Holly are reunited and Lorenzo tears up a ticket McClane got as a Christmas present. ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'' talk to Simon on the phone.]] John McClane is once again with the NYPD. He had separated from his wife, and by his own admission, is on the verge (if not already, he was described as being "two steps" away, to which John claimed it was actually only one) of alcoholism. Having been suspended, John had spent the entire previous evening drinking excessively, when he was recalled into duty as a bomber calling himself Simon demanded John's presence to endure several "games" throughout the day, or he'll use another bomb, and blow up a school. Accompanied by Zeus Carver who saved him after as part of Simon's "game" he was forced to wear a sign saying "I Hate Niggers" in Harlem, McClane attempts to stop Simon who he learns is really Simon Gruber brother of Hans Gruber, McClane's old enemy from Nakatomi Plaza. While its believed by many that Simon wants revenge for his brother's death, McClane realizes that he has robbed the Federal Reserve Bank in New York of $140 billion in gold bullion and tries to track Simon down and retrieve the gold. Eventually McClane and Zeus track Simon to a boat and learn that the bomb at the school isn't real with Simon claiming he's not a monster. Simon instead intends to blow up the boat with the gold supposedly on it, but McClane realizes that its just a trick so he can get away with the gold as Hans tried the same thing. McClane and Zeus escape before the boat explodes and McClane, at the urging of Zeus, calls Holly, but drops the phone just as she comes on the line due to finding a clue on the bottom of the asprin bottle Simon gave him for his headache. McClane discovers that the bottle has the name of the town in Canada that Simon fled to and leads the Canadian Mounted Police in an attack on Simon's warehouse that recovers the gold and captures Simon's army. Simon, however, follows McClane's helicopter in one of his own and fires on it with an M-60. McClane's helicopter is forced to land and McClane draws Simon away, armed with a revolver with only two bullets in it. McClane shoots down a billboard wire onto the rotor of Simon's helicopter, causing it crash and killing Simon. Afterwards, at the urging of Zeus, McClane calls Holly again even though he knows she'll be furious with him for leaving her hanging earlier. ''Live Free or Die Hard'' In the 19 years since Nakatomi Plaza, McClane's actions seem to have been forgotten, leaving him bitter about it. He has also been promoted to Lieutenant Detective. He is divorced from his wife and estranged from his children as shown when he confronts his daughter Lucy and she calls him by his first name and its revealed that she tells all of her boyfriends that he's dead. After the FBI asks for a senior detective to pick up hacker Matt Farrell in Camden, New Jersey and deliver him to the FBI, McClane's boss sends him to do it and he unknowingly arrives just in time to save Farrell from being assassinated by a bomb. When the assassins try to shoot Farrell, McClane gets into a gunfight with them and manages to kill three before escaping with Farrell. McClane delivers Farrell to Deputy Director Bowman of the FBI who directs him to take Farrell to Homeland Security. On the way, Farrell recognizes the voice of the woman directing them as Mai Linh, the woman who hired him. After tricking Mai, McClane talks to the head terrorist Thomas Gabriel who tries to get him to kill Farrell. Failing, Gabriel sends a helicopter to attack them, killing all but McClane and Farrell. McClane manages to kill the gunman by knocking over a fire hydrant, sending water spraying into the chopper and knocking him out of it, but Gabriel sends all the traffic in a tunnel straight at him in an attempt to kill him and Farrell. The attempt fails and McClane brings down the chopper by crashing a police cruiser into it and is believed dead in the wreckage by Gabriel's goon Rand. McClane teams up with Farrell in an attempt to stop Gabriel's fire sale and travels to the Eastern Hub where he kills Mai and has Farrell stop an attempt to shut down the eastern power grid. Using video conferencing, McClane and Gabriel get to see each other face-to-face and after taunting Gabriel, McClane sends Gabriel's image to Bowman who identifies Gabriel. Gabriel blows up the Hub in an attempt to kill McClane and Farrell, but they escape. Deciding to go to Farrell's friend Warlock for help, McClane, who took flying lessons in an attempt to concur his fear of flying, flies Mai's helicopter to Warlock's house. Warlock refuses to help at first, but eventually helps them figure out that Gabriel's after something at a building called Woodlawn. Gabriel makes contact and threatens Lucy, which enrages McClane who goes after him with Farrell after Warlock tracks him to Woodlawn. Farrell sets off the alarms there to draw the FBI and after the two are separated, McClane defeats Russo and takes his gun (having lost his along the way) and radio and contacts Gabriel, pretending to kill Russo. Gabriel tries and fails to make McClane see things his way so he tries to get Lucy to convince McClane. Lucy, who grew proud of her father during this time, instead tells him that there are only five bad guys left. McClane fights and kills Rand and jumps on top of Gabriel's semi as he and his men leave with Lucy and Farrell hostage. McClane kills the semi's driver and uses its radio to contact Warlock and have him connect him to Bowman. McClane gives Gabriel's vehicle's license plate number so the FBI can track him through LoJack and tries to take Gabriel down. Gabriel tricks an F-35 into attacking him, but McClane escapes and accidentally destroys the fighter jet. Spotting Gabriel's vehicle entering a nearby warehouse, McClane goes after him, getting there as Gabriel is using Lucy to force Farrell to decode financial data. McClane kills Trey and one of Gabriel's two remaining henchmen, but is stopped from harming Gabriel by him using Lucy as a hostage and is shot in the shoulder by Emerson. Lucy shoots Emerson in the foot with his own gun and tries to kick it to her father, but the gun is stopped by Gabriel, leaving McClane weaponless. Gabriel decides to force McClane watch as he kills Farrell and Lucy before killing him and digs his gun into McClane's wound to torture him. McClane takes the opportunity and manages to fire Gabriel's gun, sending the bullet through his shoulder and into Gabriel, killing him. As Emerson goes to kill McClane, Farrell grabs McClane's gun and kills Emerson as the FBI finally arrive to help. Later, at Lucy's urging, McClane checks on Farrell, making sure he's alright and thanks him for saving Lucy's life, but threatens him when he shows interest in Lucy. McClane is annoyed when Lucy also shows interest in Farrell, but seems to have reconciled with her or is at least on the way to reconciling with her. ''A Good Day to Die Hard'' A Good Day to Die Hard puts McClane on an international stage, truly a NYC fish out of water in Moscow, and introduces his estranged son Jack. Despite their differences, they must work together to keep each other alive – and the world safe for democracy. The film is set to begin production in April 2012, for a February 14, 2013 release. ''Personality'' John is an average American man still stuck in the 20th century. With his cocky nature, McClane is able to stir up friendships quite easily as seen by his interaction with airplane passenger in the first film. However, this cocky nature also lands him in trouble with other authority figures in the series such as Dwayne Robinson and Carmine Lorenzo. Wisecracking and a smirk whenever he talks to someone, McClane held a very laid back and cool approach to dealing with the people around him, this ease would quickly disappear, however, when faced with life threatening occurrences such as Nakatomi and Dulles Airport. Early in the series, McClane seems quite taken aback by the death of Takagi, however, by the end of the series, it is quite common to McClane, who makes a trademark witty retort to his lifeless enemy. In Live Free or Die Hard, McClane is shown to be bitter about his previous heroics, saying they cost him his family. ''Appearance'' McClane's appearance varies throughout the series, but the basis remains the same, A pair of light trousers and a white tank top that is blackened over the course of each respective film. McClane's hairline also noticeably recedes until the point of it being almost invisible in the fourth film. McClane was a small but muscular man. With a tattoo on his left arm and a slightly unshaven face, McClane cut quite the intimidating figure when dealing with criminals. Appearances/Actors *Canon (4 films) **''Die Hard'' (First appearance) - Bruce Willis **''Die Hard 2: Die Harder'' - Bruce Willis **''Die Hard with a Vengeance'' - Bruce Willis **''Live Free or Die Hard'' - Bruce Willis *Upcoming Films **''A Good Day to Die Hard'' - Bruce Willis Trivia McClane has kill 58 terrorists in the first four movies. See also *''On-Screen kills by John McClane'' ja:ジョン・マクレーン Category:Characters Category:Die Hard characters